Fritzler Farm Park in 2023 featured a corn maze mowed in the likeness of Reba McEntire. (Provided by Fritzler Farm Park)
Each autumn, Fritzler Farm Park in LaSalle goes all out and turns into a fall funplex, complete with plump pumpkins to pick from the vine and a pumpkin cannon to launch the gourds. Pint-sized pumpkin patch-goers can ride a corn-themed amusement park ride and, for those looking for a scare, Scream Acres is a haunted house set under the eerie moonlight of the farm.
But long before these attractions — as well as the beer garden, fireworks shows and the DJs spinning at night — the farm’s main draw for the public was a humble corn maze. Twenty-five years ago, the fourth-generation farm was financially struggling, and the Fritzler family offered up one last piece of land as collateral to keep the farm in the family, said owner Trevor Fritzler. A corn maze was cut in the field, some string lights were hung, and people showed up to get lost.
Isabella Owellette, 9, and her mother Kiirsi try to navigate the Anderson Farms Corn Maze on Oct. 4, 2017 in Erie. (Jeremy Papasso, Daily Camera)
Corn mazes are an early iteration of Colorado’s agrotourism market, bringing visitors to farms to spend some extra cash at the end of the harvest season. Today, they remain a favorite fall tradition, with farms coming up with elaborate new designs each year that are cut into the corn stalks. This year, the farm is showcasing Life Stories Child & Family Advocacy in its corn maze, and helping raise money for the local nonprofit.
In the past, Fritzler has gone with a number of themes, ranging from Denver Broncos cutouts to a salute to country singer Reba McEntire.
“We have a close connection with aliens who come down and stamp the field for us,” Fritzler quipped. For years, farmers were tight-lipped about how they cut their corn stalks for mazes, coming up with these types of one-liners.
But in reality, most farms cut their mazes with GPS-guided tractors in the spring or early summer when the stalks are just a couple of inches tall. The team at Fritzler Farm Park uses graph paper, and each line represents one row of corn. They can hand mark the rows of corn that should be cut and then can take aerial photos with drones to determine if they need to make any adjustments.
As the fall farm entertainment industry grows, it’s also common for farms to contract the job out to companies that specialize in cutting mazes. Mile High Farms in Bennett, for example, hired Missouri-based Precision Mazes to craft its 30-acre corn maze that, from above, looks like a happy cartoon dragon. The theme was picked to go along with 2024’s “Year of the Dragon,” says April Santistevan, the festival manager.
Some of Mile High Farms’ past designs have included a witch, a unicorn and a pumpkin-eating dinosaur.
Fritzler Farm Park in LaSalle has been doing mazes in its corn fields for 25 years. (Christian Victor, Fritzler Farm Park)
Anderson Farms in Erie, a 25-acre acre corn maze with 8 miles of trails, went with a sasquatch theme this year. At Maize in the City, a Thornton attraction, maze-goers can answer trivia questions to get clues that help them navigate the corn stalks. And at Chatfield Farms in Littleton, employees this year created a Colorado wildlife vignette, with corn stalks cut to look like mountain lions, moose and bears, said Larry Vickerman, director of Chatfield Farms.
At the start of every season, a group of corn maze aficionados show up and literally run through the maze while it’s still in pristine condition, he said. They study the pattern online and time themselves and try to get through in less than 15 minutes.
Corn maze fans can also plot their route at Chatfield via a bridge that gives an aerial view of the corn stalks, or grab a map.
“But what’s the fun of being in a maze if you have a map?” Vickerman said.